The present invention relates to a tool for hanging fascia board. In the prior art, carpentry tools are known and are devised to make easier many tasks. Among those tasks is the hanging of fascia board on the ends of rafters. Such a task is often difficult to achieve by one person since the person must balance themself on a high ladder, support the fascia board, and nail it into place. Often, the carpenter wishes that he or she has three or four hands to accomplish this task.
In the prior art, Applicant is aware of devices specifically devised to assist the carpenter in hanging fascia board on the ends of rafters. U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,517 to Vossler teaches a fascia board installing apparatus including a clamp to clamp the device on a rafter and a support for the fascia board. The present invention differs from the teachings of Vossler as contemplating angular adjustment between the fascia board support and the portion attached to the rafter and as allowing adjustment to compensate for fascia board having differing dimensions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,059 to Silver discloses a fascia board holder including a channel section mountable on a roof rafter and a pivotably mounted quadrant lockable at any selected angle with a perpendicular channel to receive the fascia board. The present invention differs from the teachings of Silver in several respects including (1) the present invention may be adjusted to accommodate to fascia boards of differing dimensions, and (2) the present invention includes a fascia board support laterally spaced from the end of the rafter.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,189 to Fleck discloses an apparatus for hanging fascia board including a saddle or bracket attached to the upper edge of the rafter and a fascia board catch pivotably attached to the saddle through an adjusting bar. The present invention differs from the teachings of Fleck as contemplating use with fascia boards of differing dimensions and lateral spacing of the fascia board support from the rafter on which it is mounted.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,527 to Cooley discloses a device for hanging sheetrock from the ceiling inside of a building. There is no teaching or suggestion in Cooley of hanging fascia board on the ends of rafters.
Additionally, Applicant is aware of the following U.S. Patents that teach carpentry tools only generally related to the teachings of the present invention:
None of these references teaches a device designed to facilitate easy installation of fascia board on the ends of rafters in the manner taught by Applicant herein.
The present invention relates to a tool for hanging fascia board. The present invention includes the following interrelated objects, aspects and features:
(1) In a first aspect, the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes three parts which are adjustable with respect to one another for any situation that might be encountered by a carpenter in hanging fascia board.
(2) A first part of the present invention consists of an elongated bar or a t-bar having two pieces attached perpendicularly together including a flat elongated base member having an opening therethrough comprising a hand grip and a second perpendicular lip member or cross member, also flat, straddling a top surface of the base member and having a plurality of holes therethrough. The t-bar is designed to be removably mounted on the end of a rafter with the flat elongated member lying against a side wall of the rafter, and with a portion of the second perpendicular member overlying the top of the rafter and removably affixed thereto through the use of nails, such as duplex nails, driven through openings in the second perpendicular member.
(3) A support hanger is pivotably mounted to the t-bar and may be fixed in any desired angular relationship with respect to the t-bar, for example, angles ranging from 0xc2x0 to 45xc2x0, although this range is merely exemplary. The support hanger has a slot therethrough sized and configured to slidably receive a fascia board.
(4) Depth adjustment means comprising a depth adjuster is mounted on the support hanger and may be reciprocated and fixed in a desired position to adjust the depth of the slot of the support hanger. Thus, the depth of the slot may be adjusted to facilitate attachment of fascia boards of varying dimensions such as, for example, 2xc3x974, 2xc3x976, 2xc3x978, 2xc3x9710, and 2xc3x9712, which are examples of the dimensions of fascia boards that may suitably be fastened to the ends of rafter boards using the present invention.
(5) In a preferred method of use of the present invention, a plurality of tools in accordance with the teachings of the present invention may be used together with each such tool being mounted on a particular rafter board end so that a fascia board can be supported between two tools so that the fascia board is properly aligned and in position to be nailed to the rafter board ends.
(6) As the present invention is designed, the support hanger pivots laterally of the rafter board to which the t-bar is removably mounted. In this way, the carpenter can drive nails through the fascia board and into the end of the rafter board to which the inventive tool is temporarily affixed. This is a distinct advantage over tools previously designed as described in the BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION section hereinabove since several of those tools include structure such as a fascia board support hanger that overlies the end of the rafter board to which it is attached, thereby preventing the carpenter from nailing the fascia board to that particular rafter end until such time as the tool in question is removed therefrom.
(7) In one preferred mode of use of the present invention, the nails used to temporarily affix the t-bar to a rafter board are of the duplex type having double heads to facilitate easy removal thereof after the fascia board has been nailed to the rafter ends.
As such, it is a first object of the present invention to provide a tool for hanging fascia board.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a tool permitting the hanging of fascia boards of diverse dimensions.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide such a tool including means for allowing angular adjustment between a t-bar and a support hanger to render the tool versatile for rafters having diverse angular relationships with the associated framing of the building on which they are mounted.
It is a yet further object of the present invention to provide such a tool wherein a plurality of such tools may be used in tandem to better facilitate simple hanging of fascia boards on rafter ends.
These and other objects, aspects and features of the present invention will be better understood from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment when read in conjunction with the appended drawing figures.